“- and Stella had that kind of face. One that looked permanently guilty, as if some form of mischief was in the recent past, the near future, or both.”
“The story and study of the past, both recent and distant, will not reveal the future, but it flashes beacon lights along the way and it is a useful nostrum against despair.”
“...the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whaterver form. Both are illusions.”
“One faces the future with one's past.”
“There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past.”
“There are different ways to be confused about how someone's disappointed you. Some lie about the future because they wanted to forget the past. But some will lie about the past because they think it will give you both a future.”